EMERGENCY! Alex is off feed!

[Littleredbeak]

I had a sick bird when the power went out and used hand warmers! I lined the bottom of the cage with them and it worked great! It was for a button quail tho- they don perch and when she want to heat she went to the heated portion.

 

[Littleredbeak]

What kind of bird is Alex? Luvy my Lovebird can not eat too much of Harrison High Potency pellets because it has too much protein - Luvy was doing a lot of regurgitating and it turned out to be Harrison’s. Luvy went back to getting gets TOPS pellets with a little of Harrison’s high potency sprinkled in and he no longer Excessively regurgitates.

 

[Scott]

I hope today brings more relief and normalcy for Alex!

 

[SailBoat]

4 wheel drive SUV are a great choice as the vast majority of them have never seem anything more than the grass on someones' front yard. The down side is their maintenance schedule needs to be followed closely! Most people change the oil, but for whatever reason stop there. Everything from the front axle to the rear axle needs to be maintained regularly! Failure to do so will cost thousands to replace components and/or complete systems like transfer cases and the like.

Commonly, SUV's that are leased require that the vehicle is maintained to the manufacturers' specifications and at a dealership, so that records of that maintenance is available. Target a SUV that is coming off a lease. If the vehicle is being sold by the dealership that leased the vehicle they can show the maintenance history. That history is golden with SUV's...

I understand that full size SUV's are an attractive option, but they are not that much larger than the first size down.

 

[Laurasea]

Hopefully things are improving?
Has his weight changed?
Waiting for a fingers crossed good update

 

[bug_n_flock]

Well, his vet wasn't working today. We are not thinking he needs the emergency vet, but it is always an option. He continued to nibble on seed all thru the day, whistle as normal, and not display any respiratory distress. I finally fell asleep, but set alarms and got up every hour or 2 to check on him and each time there were seed shells to blow off the top of the dish, and he was acting more or less as normal. Food consumption is down, but not at zero. Keeping him warm, keeping doxy in the water, and watching him like a hawk, ready to take him to emergency vet if anything changes. Hopefully by the time his vet works next he will be so improved she says to just stay the course. Worried about him, but overall he seems to have improved in the last 24 hrs or so. I turned out his light early today and let it go dark as the sun went down.



Weather was beautiful today, nearly reached 70, and overnight it is only supposed to drop to 51.



Good advice on the SUV. We may even look at dealership vehicles in the city online and see if the dealership will ship it to a local branch. A city suv is even less likely to have been off road.

 

[bug_n_flock]

As of this AM he is willing to not only eat his nutriberries, but climb down to the cage floor to finish eating them after the first bite or two when they inevitably fall. I'm SO relieved. Haven't noticed any breathing stuff since I first noticed it on Thurs. Knock on wood, but he seems to be thru the worst of it. Don't know what thing in particular it was that helped him, but he seems to be well. We have all decided that a visit in to be seen would not be the best choice considering everything right now. Of course if he regresses we will have him in, and we will still be monitoring closely. We will keep offering the doxy water until he has completed a full 10 days on it, and we have been keeping the temps up. After the antibiotics(and maybe a short time after to recover from the antibiotics), we will be starting him on a diet as he is definitely too overweight.

 

[Scott]

So glad to know Alex has improved! Great detective work and self-reliance when needed!!

 

[bug_n_flock]

Chubby Mr. So-and-so emptied his pellet dish today. Gotta make up for lost eating time, I suppose. Also he is more and more active again, which is great since he has a diet in his future.

 

[LaManuka]

Great news Alex is feeling better! Hope he enjoys his new diet and exercise regimen

 

[Laurasea]

Yippee!!!!!
You think was the doxyclin?

 

[bug_n_flock]

Seems likely to me that it was, due to the timeline of improvement. But whatever it was, something did help him.



We are rushing to get the wood stove up and running. I bet part of what contributed to him becoming unwell was the changes in temp. The weather keeps going between nice, and winter weather temps. My bet is that opening the bird room door on cold days caused a rush of cold air that contributed. Once the rest of the house is toasty there wouldn't be a temp swing from just the door opening. That is our project for today.... moving Freedom's big cage into the bird room so we can safely fire up the stove. We have been dragging our feet on that because it is a huge macaw cage so we literally have to take it apart in order to move it down the hall and thru the bird room door.



Edit to add: Freedom has a second, smaller cage already in the bird room and is used to spending time in there. We are basically planning to swap where the two cages are so that her main house is in the more constant temp bird room for the winter, and not right next to the hot wood stove. The hallway outside the bird room door is significantly colder than the area in the livingroom with freedom's big cage, Boomer, and Mitzy's cages. But the electric radiator there is not powerfull enough to warm the hallway or beyond. We are in a roughly 20'×80' mobile home so very linear floorplan, hope that makes the layout a little clearer.

 

[Ellie777Australia]

Great to hear that Alex has improved.